MC, did you see how those little suckers turned out? [video=youtube;-pQ9nC7hsKk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pQ9nC7hsKk[/video] Why not, this isn't a competition, just a challenge. As long as you're having fun, that's the whole point. Bring it on, G!
Thanks for the encouragement. The reason for "why not" is there are sooo many other pleasures I persue. Right now in Boston is perfect hiking weather, or I can create a new dish for dinner, or work on scenery, or play / program EDEE, (4x turn based world conquest game), or well, anyway, you get the pic. Tell ya what? I'll design it and provide anyone else here with the enough parts for two if they will build them, keep one and send me one. Hmm, Ok, so, here's the idea / concept / *tentative* offer: I design a "Boxcab Critter" I will provide 2 Kato "critter chassies" The scale drawings done in MS Paint You build two of them Keep one Send me one Everybody wins. The design will be: Based on said Kato chassie Body will be printed on paper You make it fit and function Additional details to be worked out / negotiated Sound fare?
Don't look a gift geek in the mouth! :tb-tongue: Grey One, if you're serious about it, send the drawings first and I'll see if it's a fair game (were you going to modify the sy-fy boxcab?). If it works out right, I'll build one and my son will build the other.
Oh, and now that you mention those, I was gonna ask are they tied together or do they operate separately?
Finally found my little logging/shortline boxcab critter and took a better photo. SW9 chassis with a modified 34 ft Overton as the body with assorted parts from the parts boxes. And it has its own six car consist with a swanky parlor car bringing up the rear.
I really like those little Nn3 boxcabs. Great work and nice video. Now I found two Bmann doodlebug shells when I was sorting through some of my boxes today. Hmmm. Maybe my favorite chassis, an SW anything and those spare doodlebug bodies. But not until I get through my 1 x1 foot pile of boxes of locos needing repairs or decals.
The Nn3 boxcabs are all scratchbuilt other than the motor wheels, gears and couplers. I have a few pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/Nn323TBoxcabs They are wired together and use a 5.5V capacitor to run over dirty track. In the video they are running off a D cell battery.
Wow, I hadn't thought about using a capacitor. Would probably make a decent weight in my boxcab, too.
I made some small progress last night. Here is the stock Kato 11-104 chassis, and a drawing in the background scaled out to N from the Spring 1993 issue of Timber Times. This issue is available as a reprint photocopy from them and also includes an article on building an On30 version of this speeder. So, yes, you can see a few things right off. The stock chassis has these giant "porches" on either end, and these Rapido couple knock-offs. There is also a capacitor on top, which I assume helps ease this through dirty track on DC. I don't know if I can re-use this for DCC, but I don't want an exploding capacitor to let me know that the answer is no so I will probably not include it in the finished project unless someone can tell me that it will work and how to do it. You can also see that the wheels are going to be large for this, and the prototype, at least from this drawing. The drawing doesn't really detail what's going on with the wheels. Obviously, this thing wasn't just floating above two axles, but there's not much understanding here of how this went together. The wheelbase is also too long. I looked at this chassis, and then at my options, and then back at this chassis, and back at my options. I took this chassis apart and concluded that it would probably kill its reliability if I were to start in with my current skill-level trying to shorten the wheelbase. For one, the motor makes up most of that distance between the wheels, and I don't feel a deep need to remotor this right now. The brass gears all seem to work so well it'd be a shame for my ham-fisted attempts at altering the mechanism. I have resolved to just go with this, focus on the body and shell, and proceed knowing that what I am building could eventually be transferred to a more prototypical mechanism if one becomes available or if I become a tenth level magic user of micro-engineering design. I set to work, removing the couplers, sawing off the "porches," clipping off some useless tabs, and doing a bit of filing. I then isolated the motor from the motor pick-up tabs, which is not hard with this mech as it uses a leaf spring system that is easy to re-route. The motor tabs (hard to see here) are sticking straight up in this view and the spring contacts from the two axles are in basically a stock configuration but insulated from even the possibility of a short with Kapton tape. Next steps will be to convert this to DCC, figure out what I am doing for lighting (anyone know anything about fiber optics?), and figure ouf the couplers. Adam
I KNEW IT!!! No matter how you try to suppress it, the D&Ditis just keeps rearing it's ugly head (& doing 50+ damage points) Looks like a great start to the project! I was looking at the 11-104 last night for possible usage in these: Yes, the 11-104 wheelbase is pretty wide for most these project, but at some point you just have to go with it. Chris333 talked about using a capacitor in his Nn3 boxcabs, but those were DC, too. Would be nice to know if those would work with DCC, but I have the electrical knowledge of Fred Flinstone. Wow: people are actually already working on their boxcabs. Given my usualy procrastinatory habits, I was going to wait until November to even think about starting, but I better get my butt in gear. Maybe I could enter it in the "Diesel and Other Locomotives" catagory at the PCR NMRA Division Meet September 11. Hmmm.... Great work, everyone!
M.C., don't feel too bad. I picked up that power chassis probably six months ago, and it was only last night that I really did anything with it. I got my procrastination out of the way nice and early. I am probably going to hit another plateau of inactivity when I can't figure out how to do my lighting. The prototype had all these little car headlight looking things on it, something like four on one end and three on the other. I am thinking fiber optics would be my best bet, but I don't know how to go about doing that. I fully intend to take mine to the next Pacific Model Loggers' Congress as a contest entry. Adam
Ok...OK...you guys are pretty much convincing me to do one of these!! I like this little mech as a starter. Just gotta scrape up the change to buy one. I have some crazy thoughts on how to build one !!! I presume the 'Boxcab' DOESNT have to be prototypical...{aka} representing anything that really ran ? As all the pics I am seeing pretty much show they made em where no 2 looked alike anyways...LOL .
Awesome, welcome aboard! Would that be precrastination? And MC, don't those rock?! My drummer just sent me a link to the same things. I triple-dog-dare you to do it. (breach of etiquette and all!) :tb-tongue: Nope, prototypes not required. You can pull your design outta anywhere (uhh, well almost anywhere).
Excellent! Another victim, Master! (rubs hands together diabolically) The Kato 11-104 is a little over 20 bucks shipped, I think. You might check to see if Wig-Wag has this one. This is not the best mech ever. If you want reliability you might want to go with the Kato 11-105 or -106 or -107. It has four axles and is just about the top of the reliability line for these N scale mechanisms.
